Laurel Lake, located in the Yosemite Wilderness, escaped the fire by about a mile

Laurel Lake, located in the Yosemite Wilderness, escaped the fire by about a mile

Photo: Tom Stienstra/The Chronicle

Image 29 of 38

Miles of Stanislaus National Forest burned into Yosemite Wilderness

Miles of Stanislaus National Forest burned into Yosemite Wilderness

Photo: Tom Stienstra/The Chronicle

Image 30 of 38

Image 31 of 38

Everything burned in this picture, as far as you can see, and beyond

Everything burned in this picture, as far as you can see, and beyond

Photo: Tom Stienstra/The Chronicle

Image 32 of 38

Burned-out forest, typical scene across much of burn area

Burned-out forest, typical scene across much of burn area

Photo: Tom Stienstra/The Chronicle

Image 33 of 38

Trees in danger of falling on roads are marked with an H and called "hazard trees" . . .

Trees in danger of falling on roads are marked with an H and called "hazard trees" . . .

Photo: Tom Stienstra/The Chronicle

Image 34 of 38

. . . and crews then cut down "hazard trees" that could fall at any time

. . . and crews then cut down "hazard trees" that could fall at any time

Photo: Tom Stienstra/The Chronicle

Image 35 of 38

Image 36 of 38

New life amid death, with fern grotto emerging last week amid tree skeletons

New life amid death, with fern grotto emerging last week amid tree skeletons

Photo: Tom Stienstra/The Chronicle

Image 37 of 38

Never say die: At Sweetwater Camp, a Forest Service site along Highway 120, a camp host posted a flag at his abandoned campsite

Never say die: At Sweetwater Camp, a Forest Service site along Highway 120, a camp host posted a flag at his abandoned campsite

Photo: Tom Stienstra/The Chronicle

Image 38 of 38

Revival already under way in Rim Fire burn zone

1 / 38

Back to Gallery

Groveland, Tuolumne County -- From the interior of the Rim Fire, charred, dead trees stretch for miles down the canyon and across to a bare mountain face incinerated into a moonscape.

Yet across the blackened earth, gray ash and tanged scent of burned wood, a bracken fern sprouted last week and stretched skyward, as life emerged anew.

Amid downed trees and charred ground, a lone deer found a small, fresh patch of grass that pushed up from the ash. In areas where oaks were charred by ground fires but yet survived, chipmunks and squirrels searched and found acorns for their winter stashes.

The land's rebirth has started, campgrounds and recreation facilities have been largely protected, and the landscape has begun to heal after the Rim Fire reached 92 percent containment.

Ground fires still consume brush in the Yosemite Wilderness south of remote Kibbie Lake. In the interior of Stanislaus National Forest, fires burn toward each other to eventual collision and flameout. Across the range, some stumps still smolder, smoke and burn into their root systems.

The Rim Fire will end as the third largest in California history (since 1932, when records became verifiable): 257,135 acres and 402 square miles. It is also one of the best-known wildfires in the world, with its location overlapping the western boundary of Yosemite National Park in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.

After international travelers were blocked from entry at Yosemite because of the federal shutdown, many stopped at the Rim of the World Vista along Highway 120 to take in the view of the fire zone.

"Everything you can see, as far as you can see in every direction, was burned in the fire," said Keli Stafford of the U.S. Forest Service, meeting a small group from Germany.

John Fauls and Sally Anderson stood on the rock wall at the lookout for 15 minutes, holding each other as they took in the scope of the scene in front of them. "Unbelievable," Fauls said.

But just below the lookout, about a mile up the Tuolumne Canyon, Rainbow Pool, the Yosemite-like waterfall in miniature, is a symbol of the hope for the future. Though the access road is closed from burned trees and limbs that might fall and turn into "widow makers," the waterfall, its rocks and adjacent vegetation emerged unscarred. It remains one of the prettiest swimming holes in California.

This past week, I was among the first in the media to be escorted into the interior of the burn. What you see is dramatic: What's bad, well, it's a nightmare; yet the best of conditions are ecstasy. The outlook for the future - for the most part - is good, over time.

Tree cemetery

The Rim Fire was first reported at 3:15 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 17, when a spotter in an airplane saw a smoke column and radioed in the GPS coordinates. The exact site was near the confluence of the Clavey and Tuolumne rivers, on the north side of Jawbone Ridge. Investigators said the fire was caused by a bow hunter with an illegal campfire, but have revealed no other specifics or the hunter's identity.

In three days, the fire grew from 5,000 to 50,000 to 100,000 acres. At its peak, more than 5,000 firefighters were assigned to battle it.

The fire probably burned as hot as 1,500 degrees. Entire trees exploded in sequence like a chain of fireworks as they crowned and lit up canyons.

"On that Monday night, I drove up 120 toward Rainbow Pool and you could see the hills on fire, the trees like lightning bugs, glowing and torching everywhere," said Dusty Vaughn, who works nearby at the Groveland District of the U.S. Forest Service. "You could actually feel the heat through the windows and the metal of the truck."

On Cherry Lake Road, which extends 25 miles from Highway 120 north to Cherry Lake and Cherry Valley Campground, you drive up to the "Rim" - for which the "Rim of the World Vista" is named - and then northward up and down a series of 2,000-foot canyons in the Tuolumne River watershed.

Mountain slopes once cloaked by manzanita, chemise and other chaparral have been rendered into moonscapes, where the fire burned so hot that the brush was incinerated. Valleys and slopes filled with pines, cedars and firs, once a sea of conifers, were burned to a blackened crisp. In some canyons, all that remains are the center poles of tree skeletons; the limbs and needles are gone.

Throughout the burn, you find ash-filled craters. This is where burning trees snapped off, then the stumps burned into the root systems.

"Burning stump holes are a concern," Vaughn said. "The ash is really thick. You can think it's solid to walk on and you can fall through. A firefighter fell through a stump crater to his hip and had third-degree burns."

Another issue with burning stumps is that the fire can extend into the root system and smolder underground all winter - even under snow - then reignite next spring.

Many canyons look like tree cemeteries, where everything is dead, black or gray ash. In the interior, timber companies are running salvage operations, taking out dead trees for lumber. Some of the pines span four and five feet across. One estimate is that 1 billion board feet of lumber was lost.

An aerial survey last week, of roughly 30 miles from Cherry Lake south past Highway 120, showed that the fire was "cold." Yet the public is barred from access because of "hazard trees," or trees that could fall across roadways, trails or other areas.

Along Evergreen Road, which runs from Highway 120 to Camp Mather, Evergreen Lodge and the Hetch Hetchy entrance to Yosemite, crews have marked hazard trees with a spray-painted "H." They are cutting them down as fast as possible.

"We have trees that are still burning and falling down," Vaughn said.

Erosion is another issue, especially if the area gets heavy rain instead of snow. The canyons feed 25 watersheds, most of which eventually flow into the Tuolumne River. Bulldozer fire lines and new logging roads can create water channels that, in heavy rain, can wash topsoil into the watersheds.

The genesis effect

The sight of sprouting plants in the burn zones can help temper the heartbreak you might feel from the scope of vanquished forest. Several forest areas, most campgrounds and all the lakes inside the burn zone escaped unscathed.

The first sprouting ferns last week are symbolic of a rebirth of the land. Given warm temperatures and good soil moisture next spring, wildflower blooms and mushroom sprouts may be spectacular. Fresh browse means plentiful new food sources for deer, birds and other wildlife, and excellent nutrition and survival rates for next spring's newborn.

"Even in some areas where everything is burned up, you can still hear birds chirping," Vaughn said. "We have found a few dead animals, but we have found a lot of live animals, too, even turtles, that survived the fire. Walking through, the animals are still there. You see deer, squirrels, bears, rabbits, chipmunks and lots of birds."

Wildlife migration routes will be clear of excess brush, which expands available habitat. More than half of the fire consisted of surface burns, which burned out brush and scorched trees, but did not kill them.

The area near Cherry Lake is a good example. It is shown on fire maps as in the burn zone, yet the forests surrounding the lake emerged largely intact. The Cherry Valley Campground at the lake remains lush, even pristine, with old-growth pines and rich understory. Along the river corridors of the Tuolumne River and Cherry Creek, much of the riparian vegetation is still green and healthy, where moisture from the river acted as a firebreak during the blaze.

Another plus is that poison oak, always a problem along the rivers in the area and near the campgrounds, was burned out.

"A lot of people are going to like the idea of no poison oak for a few years," Vaughn said.

With so much vegetation cleared, plants are absorbing less water, so the water table is up. If you are familiar with the landscape, you'll see green popping up in new areas and springs that are overflowing to the surface again. One such spot is Ackerson Meadow along Evergreen Road, which was flowing last week, even in a drought year when it had been dry all summer.

While crews will replant some areas with trees, nature will try to do the rest over time. In 20 years, much of the moonscape region will resemble forest again, but it will take 200 years for the area to grow back to its former state, according to foresters.

Soil erosion is one wild card. In areas where standing burned trees still have their needles, they will eventually fall, and act as surface insulation. When burned trees fall, they can help stop erosion (as well as provide a home for insects and begin food chains).

Snow is a big plus. It creates a protective layer on the burned forest floors, and in the spring, snowmelt seeps into the soil and water table.

Heavy rains, on the other hand, can wash topsoil, ash and debris into watersheds. For instance, if two large trees recently seen in the Tuolumne River are not removed, they will become hazards to rafting next year.

At Cherry Lake, 25 miles into the interior of the fire, with nobody around for miles, we watched an osprey circle and nab a trout on the surface. At the campground, a squirrel and a chipmunk had an informal competition in their search for acorns from some giant oaks.

"I saw a bear today at Lumsden Road in the burn area," Vaughn said. "It was really good to see a young healthy bear running through the hillside.

"Everyone is going to have a great opportunity to see the great Tuolumne watershed bounce back, to see the plants return, to watch the whole natural restoration process. Anybody can have a front row seat, to see the wildflowers next spring, the mushrooms sprout and the wildlife return."

Fire's aftermath

Burn severity

High (moonscape), 16,796 acres

Moderate (all trees, ground vegetation), 94,940 acres

Low (ground fires, tree scorching), 143,225 acres

Unburned, 1,934 acres

Total: 256,895

Note: An additional 240 acres burned since this assessment

Burn areas

Stanislaus National Forest, 154,108 acres

Yosemite National Park, 78,946 acres

Sierra Pacific timberland, 16,034 acres

Privately owned land, 7,678 acres

Bureau of Land Management, 129 acres

Note: An additional 240 acres, mostly in Yosemite National Park, burned since this assessment.